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==History==
[[File:Park Hill deck.JPG|thumb|left|A typical deck at Park Hill.]]
Park Hill was previously the site of [[Back-to-back houses|back-to-back housing]], a mixture of 2–3-storey tenement buildings, waste ground, quarries and steep alleyways.<ref name="sheffieldhistory"/> Facilities were poor, with one [[Standpipe (street)|standpipe]] supporting up to 100 people.<ref name="sheffieldhistory"/> It was colloquially known as "Little Chicago" in the 1930s, due to the incidence of violent crime there.<ref name="Gangs">{{cite web|last1=Milner|first1=Will|title=Gangs: A history of violence|url=http://nowthenmagazine.com/sheffield/issue-34/gangs/|website=Now Then Magazine|publisher=Opus Independants|accessdate=2 April 2016|ref=harv}}</ref> [[Urban renewal|Clearance of the area]] began during the 1930s. butThe first clearance was haltedmade duefor the Duke/Bard/Bernard Street scheme in 1933. The courts were replaced with four storey blocks of maisonettes. In 1935 it was proposed to [[Worldclear Warthe II]]central area which included streets to the south of Duke Street; South Street, Low Street, Hague Lane, Lord Street, Stafford Street, Long Henry Street, Colliers Row, Norwich Street, Gilbert Street and Anson Street.<ref name="sheffieldhistory">{{citeJohn web|url=httpRennie, the the city’s Medical Officer of Health, concluded://www “.sheffield.gov.uk/out--about/parks-woodlands--countryside/parks/the dwelling houses in that area [of Duke Street, Duke Street Lane, South Street and Low Street] are by reason of disrepair or sanitary defects unfit for human habitation, or are by reason of their bad arrangement, or the narrowness or bad arrangement of the streets, dangerous or injurious to the health of the inhabitants of the area, and that the other buildings in the area are for a-z-city-district--local--parks/cholera-monument-grounds--clay-wood/norfolk-heritage-trail/history- like reason dangerous or injurious to the health of-park-hill-flats|title=Sheffield Citythe Councilsaid -inhabitants, Historyand that the most satisfactory method of Parkdealing Hillwith Flats|publisher=Sheffieldthe conditions in the area is the demolition of all the buildings in the area.gov.uk|accessdate=1” September<ref> Sheffield Archives: CA-MIN/74,p. 2009}}221)</ref>
G. C. Craven, the city's Planning officer recommended wholesale demolition and possible replacement with multi-storey flats. The Second World War halted this.<ref name="sheffieldhistory">{{cite web|url=http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/out--about/parks-woodlands--countryside/parks/a-z-city-district--local--parks/cholera-monument-grounds--clay-wood/norfolk-heritage-trail/history-of-park-hill-flats|title=Sheffield City Council - History of Park Hill Flats|publisher=Sheffield.gov.uk|accessdate=1 September 2009}}</ref>
 
Following the war it was decided that a radical scheme needed to be introduced to deal with rehousing the Park Hill community. To that end architects [[Jack Lynn]] and [[Ivor Smith, architect|Ivor Smith]] began work in 1945 designing the Park Hill Flats. Inspired by [[Le Corbusier]]'s [[Unité d'Habitation]] and the [[Alison and Peter Smithson|Smithsons']] unbuilt schemes, most notably for [[Golden Lane Estate|Golden Lane]] in [[London]], the [[deck access]] scheme was viewed as revolutionary at the time.<ref name="sheffieldlibrary"/> The style is known as [[Brutalist architecture|brutalism]]. <ref name="A-Z">{{cite web|last1=Meades|first1=Jonathan|title=The incredible hulks: Jonathan Meades' A-Z of brutalism|url=http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/feb/13/jonathan-meades-brutalism-a-z|website=Guardian|publisher=Guardian Newspapers|accessdate=2 April 2016|ref=harv|date=13 February 2014}}</ref>
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